Archive for the ‘Experience’ Category

It’s been a very strange year for me. A lot of new experiences, a new home, new travels, new relationships, new drama, new jobs… it’s been somewhat overwhelming. I’ve spent most of my social/non-work time hiding out alone in my apartment, sometimes spending almost entire days in bed, because that was all I could handle. But the last few weekends, I’ve at least been productive in my hermitage, sewing pillows and curtains, wrapping up the final decorating process of my apartment by finishing these projects which I’ve had half-started for months now. The sewing—and completion of these open-ended projects—has been somewhat therapeutic in pulling me out of the quicksand of funk I felt I was trapped in. Moving in a direction—ANY DIRECTION— at least feels like just that: you’re moving. So, here’s to moving forward and sewing that last closing stitch to fuse random broken pieces into something new and beautiful.

It’s a few weeks after our national day of freedom, but this day, July 23, I consider my freedom anniversary. It was the final day—the “wrap”—of the first movie I worked on. It was a grueling shoot, as most indie film shoots in New York City are. But I was 23, excited, ambitious, full of bright-future optimism. Who cares if I was working 14+ hour days for no pay! I was paying my dues! We all had to start somewhere! It was a resume builder! And every July 23rd since, I have looked back to see how far I have—or haven’t—come.

Back then, 11 years ago, I was just a PA, which meant I did whatever non-skilled task they radioed at me over the walkie. “Bring this, get that… Go buy the actor a lox and cream cheese bagel. Toasted.” One such task was driving a 14-foot cube truck through Manhattan. The first time I had to return the grip truck to the overnight parking lot, I had only been in NYC a few days, and none of the crew members wanted to navigate me to lot. They dismissively said, “just go down Broadway, and take the 5th Ave fork, and take a right on…” All I could think was “I’ve been here THREE DAYS and you want me to drive a huge truck through a city that I don’t know! That city being NEW YORK CITY??? All by myself? With no map? [pre-Garmin-GPS days]. You really care that little about the truck, the equipment inside, the production as a whole, and me, this skinny girl from Texas!?!?”

If you’re a long time follower of my blog[s], you might remember some beautiful vases that my woodshop tech buddy and sensei-mentor Drew Medvez made last year with the leftover chops from my credenza. Literally a “one [wo]man’s trash is another man’s treasure” scenario.

Right before I left on my journeymoon last summer, I had arranged a trade with Drew: my chevron coffee table for his tall vase, which I adoringly named Anya. But, with the clock winding down on my departure and having just donated my truck, which I probably wouldn’t have been able to fit the table in anyway because the back gate was crushed shut, our exchange was postponed.

But Drew made good on his end of the deal when I returned to LA. Anya, the vase which was made from the short-ends of my credenza boards, was reunited with her mother. I actually ended up selling the table I was going to trade with Drew, so he’s waiting on me to build him another one. Such a patient man, that Medvez.

If you also remember, this credenza was my first furniture project ever, and there was an agonizing learning curve I had to overcome, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish the credenza at all if it weren’t for Drew, who incidentally cautioned me against doing such a huge project as a beginner. Lesson learned, but what a beautiful piece I got from ignoring his warning! (Read more about the emotional learning curve of furniture building in these old posts: the beginning, middle, end.)

Drew told me that the rules changed for the Otis machine woodworking class: the first project the students build has to be about the size of a bread box. I have to admit it is satisfying knowing the rules were probably changed because of me.

So, here’s a sneak peak of a section of my new beach bachelorette pad. Hopefully I’ll have the decor completed in the next couple weeks for the grand reveal.